Ball bats are well known and include a barrel portion connected to a handle portion with a knob connected to the handle or proximal end of the bat and an end cap connected to the barrel or distal end of the bat. Ball bats have traditionally been made of wood, but their construction has evolved over the years to aluminum alloys, other alloys, and/or fiber composite materials. With the use of new materials and bat configurations, ball bat performance has also improved to the point where many baseball and softball organizations publish and update equipment standards and/or requirements including performance limitations for ball bats. Some softball organizations, for example, have specified the use of soft balls that have lower compression values and can also have higher coefficient of restitution values. The newer soft ball specifications can reduce the performance level compared to soft balls formed of a higher compression value. Ball bat manufacturers produce ball bats designed to meet the applicable performance limitations of the applicable baseball and softball organizations. Further, as bat performance limitations continue to be restricted, ball bat manufacturers seek other ways of improving overall performance and playability of ball bats. One objective can be to enlarge the sweet spot of a bat. Accordingly, many bat manufacturers seek to configure a bat that provides more consistent performance over a greater area of the barrel, and provides an improved feel upon impact with a ball.
Many of the newer requirements and limitations affect the playability, performance and feel of ball bats. For example, when lower compression softballs are impacted by many existing high performance softball bats, the softer, lower compression balls do not generate the same force when impacting the ball bat and thus less vibrational energy is transferred from the location of impact to the user's hands. Although some may find this lack of feedback or feel desirable, most skilled softball players seek such feedback or feel upon hitting a softball. Higher level players want to correlate the feel of the impact to the travel of the batted ball and the location where the ball impacted the barrel. In this way, the player can adjust and/or correct his or her swing to improve their performance in future at-bats.
Further, ball bat performance limitations require the maximum performance level of ball bats to be reduced. In many existing bats, when the maximum performance level is reduced, the remaining areas of the bat area are also reduced, and in some cases significantly reduced. In other words, in an effort to reduce the highest performance location on a ball bat, typically referred to as the sweet spot. Some constructions not only reduce the performance of the bat at the “sweet spot” but also lower the performance level of other locations on the bat barrel thereby significantly reducing the overall performance level of the bat. Accordingly, many existing bats satisfy the maximum performance limitations, but offer very poor performance to the batter for impacts occurring away from the sweet spot of the ball bat.
Accordingly, a need exists for a ball bat that satisfies existing performance standards while providing a consistent high performance level over a larger hitting area of the barrel portion of the ball bat. What is also needed is a softball bat that provides exceptional performance even when used with a lower compression softball, and that provides feedback to the user upon impact of the bat to a pitched ball. It would be advantageous to provide a softball bat that provides the player with immediate feedback to enable the player to feel how well and/or where the player impacted the bat on the barrel portion of the bat. What is also needed is a ball bat that is configured to offer more advantages or benefits to users than just satisfying existing applicable ball bat equipment performance limitations and requirements.